Ghost Rider EarthCache
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Difficulty:
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Stand at ground zero and look to the North East. Find the mountain
that is right of the big deciduous tree and left of the big
evergreen tree.
You are looking at Mount Hosmer, home to the wonderful shadow of
Ghost Rider; that appears on its face during summer afternoons.
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But this mountain is also wonderful for geological reasons. Mount
Hosmer is part of the Palliser Formation, and these mountains are
considered, by geologist, to be upside mountains.
The term upside down is used because the rocks found on the tops of
the mountains are older than the rocks found at the bottom of the
mountains.
The Palliser Mountains started off 360 million years ago as a sea
bed. Over time, sediment (marine material) collected in layers on
the sea floor. Over a period of 5 million years, extreme pressure
turned these materials into limestone, and created layers called
‘strata’.
This seabed was part of one of Earth’s 7 large tectonic
plates. These plates are sections of the Earth’s crusts which
have fractured and float independently of each other. Two of these
plates collided; causing the land to buckle, creating mountains,
while at the same time, sections of the seabed was forced under the
other land mass.
180 million years ago another process of rock building began.
Millions of years of decaying dinosaurs and plant materials were
compressed and turned into coal, which settled on the old ocean
floor.
At this point there was more pressure on the tectonic plates
causing fractures, which allowed the old limestone seabed to ride
up and over the newer coal based rocks, creating upside down
mountains!
Mountain building continued(s) as glaciers and weather changed the
face of the mountains to what we see today.
To log this cache you must e-mail the answers to the following
questions to the cache owner, and include a picture of Mount Hosmer
(bonus if it includes Ghost Rider) with your log.
1) Describe the direction of the majority of the strata lines on
the face of Mount Hosmer.
2) Describe the direction of the strata lines to the left of the
summit, and explain what happened here.
3) What is the year inscribed on the stone post at the given
coordinates.
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Additional Hints
(No hints available.)